Tax refunds

A tax refund or tax rebate is the money that you get back from HRMC if you paid too much in tax. By law, if you're travelling to temporary workplaces and paying to make your own way there, you could get a tax refund. On average, a 4-year tax refund claimed through RIFT amounts to £2,500 or £2,000 per year for people in the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).

Tax returns

A tax return is how a taxpayer lets HMRC know their annual income, expenses and other personal circumstances. HMRC use it to calculate the tax you owe and claim tax allowances and tax reliefs you're entitled to. There are many reasons you may have to file a tax return, it's not just for the self-employed.

Advice

We’ve been helping people with the taxman since 1999. Our specialist teams work closely with HMRC to put the cash back in your pocket where it belongs. You can be sure that we know the rules inside out. Get in touch if you need help, it's what we're here for.

Our prices

We make our prices as simple as possible so that you don't find yourself with any unexpected bills for "hidden extras". All aftercare is included and any refund you get is covered by our RIFT Guarantee. There are no upfront charges. We'll handle everything with HMRC for you and even remind you when it's time to claim again next year.

About us

The RIFT Group is a family business based in Kent, founded by Jan Post in 1999. We're specialists in tax refunds and tax returns and we're the only company in our field to have been awarded the Institute of Customer Service "ServiceMark" for excellence in customer service. Get in touch to see how we can help you today.

Temporary Workplace Distance Rules​

Why can’t I claim if my work sites are close together?

There are lots of reasons why people can't claim tax refunds on travel. One of the main ones is not hitting the "temporary workplace" mark. This can happen even if you switch sites, if your journey and travel costs aren't changing much. For instance, if the season ticket you bought works for both sites, HMRC might say the workplaces don't count as separate.

How far apart do sites have to be to count as separate, temporary workplaces?

The travel tax refund rules say you can get tax relief on journeys to and from temporary workplaces. In general, that means places where you'll be working for 24 months or less. It seems simple enough but, as with most tax rules, it can get fiddly at times. For instance, it can make a difference if you switch to another site that's close to the previous one. Also, if there's little difference in your travel costs to the new site, the taxman might argue it doesn't count as separate.

Here's what the rules actually say:

“The basic principle is that a change in the location or boundaries of a workplace will give rise to a new workplace where the change has a significant effect on:

the journey an employee has to make to get to work, and in particular

the cost of that journey.”

HMRC booklet 490: Employee travel, section 4.7

So, for a new workplace to count as separate from the old, both the travel cost and physical journey made must be different. As you can imagine, there's quite a lot of wiggle room in the definitions here. Of the two factors, though, the cost is usually the main decider.

Temporary Workplace Rules

Can I claim for travel to different workplaces using the same season ticket for both?

Season tickets can be pretty expensive, and they're definitely worth including in your tax refund claim. It's important to know what you can actually claim for, though. If you're using your ticket for travel to temporary workplaces, then obviously you're entitled to tax relief on its cost. However, if you move to another site while your ticket's still valid, you can't just claim for it again. You only paid the cost once, so you only get the tax relief once.

Part of the problem with the rules is that season tickets can cover very different journeys with no change in cost. Let's look at London, for example. If you're working at one end of the city, then get moved to a site on the other side, things get interesting. Your journey's very different now, and you've been at both sites for under 24 months. On the other hand, your travel costs are identical either way.

Even outside of London, the situation can be tricky to work out. Bus tickets that cover you for travel over a wide area cost the same wherever you get off. If you switch to a workplace at the other end of town, the same ticket still works. Your journey changes but your costs don't.

The bottom line is that it's possible to claim for season ticket costs, but it's easy to get tripped up by technicalities. We have to look at each case on its own, as there's really no hard-and-fast answer. Just remember that HMRC might try to lump your workplaces together as "permanent" if your costs aren't changing.

Temporary Workplace Distance Rules

How far apart do workplaces have to be to count as separate under the 24 month rule?

For a workplace to be temporary, you need to be there for under 24 months. If you end up staying longer, then you'll stop getting your tax relief once those first 2 years are over. Even agreeing to stay for longer can mean the site gets classed as permanent by HMRC.

When you move to another workplace, HMRC will decide whether it counts as separate. If it's too close, or the travel costs are too similar, it might end up not counting. The trap here is that you're considered to have accepted a permanent workplace when you agree to move to the new site. Worse still, your old site suddenly no longer counts as temporary either.

Here's an example:

Bob starts at site A, he’s told from the outset that he’ll be there for 18 months.

After 12 months, he’s told that once his 18 months at site A are up, he’ll be moving to site B. Site B's just a short hop from his current route to site A, and the same distance from his home.

He’s told he’ll be at site B for 18 months.

There is no major difference in the length or cost of Bob's journey. HMRC tells Bob they're basically the same site.

At the 12-month point, Bob’s expecting his total time on sites A and B to be 36 months. The taxman says this breaks the 24-month limit for temporary workplaces.

Bob can claim for the first 12 months at site A, but not the last 6. They fall after he agreed to work on site B, which is when the site became "permanent".

As a result, Bob can’t claim anything at all for travel to site B. Again, there are grey areas and pitfalls to watch out for, and every case is likely to be different. As always, though, if there's a genuine claim to be made, we'll always battle HMRC to get your refund paid.

Another example would be if you posted at the Naval base in Portsmouth or Plymouth and have to visit different parts of each town, then those locations would not count due to the distance and you wouldn't be able to claim.

The temporary workplace rules are some of the hardest things to get your head around in tax refund law. RIFT will always fight your corner, but we'll never waste your time trying to claim more than you're entitled to. That's how you know your refund's safe. Even if the taxman ever changed his mind and demanded some of it back, we'd pay it ourselves. That's our unique RIFT Guarantee. If we say you're owed money, you can take it to the bank.

Temporary Workplaces

How can I be sure whether my workplace is ''temporary''?

HMRC's rules about temporary workplaces might seem straightforward at first glance, but things can get complicated fast. One thing that trips people up is that there are often strange little catches and complexities with certain kinds of work. Working offshore or overseas, for instance, can lead to some tricky tax situations. If you work outside of the UK for part or all of the year, get in touch with RIFT to find out where you stand.

In some cases, an entire area might be considered your temporary workplace rather than a specific site. Someone working in sales, for example, might find themselves travelling all over a given region to do their job. If they lived somewhere else and travelled in, they'd get nothing back from the taxman for it. However, the travelling they did inside their "work area" might qualify for tax relief.

Having a geographical area defined as your workplace won't always entitle you to tax relief. For instance, someone providing cover to a number of offices around an area wouldn't usually qualify. Travel to and from whichever office they were called to on any given day would only count as a normal commute.

Keep in mind that HMRC's idea of a temporary workplace is rooted more in "legalese" language than common sense. If you're at all unsure how the rules apply to your work travel, talk to RIFT. We'll quickly let you know what you can and can't claim for.

Our guarantee means you'll never lose a penny

When you claim your tax refund with RIFT, our unique RIFT Guarantee means that you don't have to worry about the taxman reclaiming any of your money. So long as you give us full and accurate information, if HMRC disagrees with the amount that we’ve claimed and ask for the money back, we’ll pay it. It won’t cost you a penny.